50,000 Newcastle fans are being ripped off every week and after the latest anti-NUFC refereeing propaganda from You Are The Ref suggesting a further 3 NUFC players should have been sent off in 2017/8 and no opposition men means now is the time for change.

On a regular basis this season, expert football pundits and former referees agree that an opponent of Newcastle should have been dismissed so why is it 118 Premier League games and over four calendar years since The Magpies saw a top flight opponent sent off against them while Newcastle have had 16 men dismissed?

Newcastle United beat Man United last Sunday at St. James’ Park thanks to a Matt Ritchie goal from a JonJo Shelvey free-kick awarded for the dive of Red Devil Chris Smalling.

In a rare instance of on-pitch justice for The Magpies in the recent history of The Premier League, Newcastle United benefitted from a referee decision in our favour.

Before and after that rather innocuous free-kick given 45 yards out that led to the winning goal, it was business as usual and nothing from the man in the middle as Rafa Benitez’s black and whites were denied a blatant penalty when Smalling fouled Dwight Gayle in the area at 0-0 and were denied a man advantage when Antonio Valencia was only given a yellow not red card for a dangerous high challenge on substitute Christian Atsu.

For once, the rules not applying to Newcastle United didn’t matter and a famous win was recorded on Tyneside to rocket the club from 18th position to 13th in 95 minutes.

Yet on most given Sundays and Saturdays, the fact that Newcastle do not get decisions from referees continually puts the Geordie football club at a disadvantage on the pitch.

This week, independent refereeing organization ‘You Are The Ref’ led by Geordie referee Mark Clattenburg and such refereeing luminaries as former PGMOL Refs Chief Keith Hackett as well as retired ref Mark Halsey , published its Referee Rankings and ‘True Table’:

The True Table is of most interest to football fans and experts alike as it purportedly shows a ‘corrected’ Premier League table showing how the English top flight table would look if refereeing errors had not affected the results of games.

For example, on the opening day of the season, YATR decided Chelsea’s Gary Cahill should not have been sent off at home to Burnley in the 14th minute so rather generously, the unexpected 2-3 defeat suffered by the Champions was converted into a 2-2 draw instead.

Each week’s games and decisions are examined and results and the table retrospectively corrected accordingly and while Newcastle only drop a place and remain on the same points in the YATR table, the blind-spot possessed by current Premier League referees at failing to spot clear red card offences against Newcastle United Football Club and sending off Newcastle’s opponents has extended to the YATR team.

Of the 9 results ‘corrected’ by the YATR teams, four are pro-Newcastle and five against:

Newcastle 2 West Ham 0 (Mitrovic should have been sent off before he scored)

While it was a collective case of ‘I am Jack’s lack of complete surprise’ for Newcastle’s fanbase that none of those opposition players were dismissed – for challenges that had it been Shelvey or Mitrovic committing them the other way, would have been instant red cards – it remains a very serious issue that could yet have ramifications in the tightest relegation fight in Premier League history with just 5 points separating 11th-placed Bournemouth and Southampton in 18th spot.

So far in the 2017/8 season, no opponent of Newcastle has been sent off although Tomer Hemed’s stamp on DeAndre Yedlin although the latter was retrospectively banned for 3 games and Newcastle have only received one penalty which Joselu unfortunately spurned against Burnley. With regards to penalties, as a rule like reds Newcastle do not get them and this is something else that has to change to level the Premier League playing field.

Newcastle saw a Brighton player sent off at St. James’ Park last season, the first dismissal of an opponent in over 100 games in all competitions yet The Magpies had to contend with the disgraceful from Championship referees including three penalties missed at Fulham and two players wrongly dismissed at Nottingham Forest to the ridiculous when a penalty was wrongly disallowed with no retake given against Burton at home as Premier League Referee Assessor Steve Harper looked on…

With 11 crucial games remaining and the spotlight on referees and refereeing due to the imminent introduction of VAR being brighter than ever, the referees of the Premier League would be wise to reassess their approach to Newcastle in light of the new football world that is dawning, where they will be judged accordingly and truly for their deeds.